Cabinet Mountains Wilderness

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It is cooling off, but I’m still hoping for an Indian summer. It was very lucky that day because the clouds didn’t cover all of the peaks above the lake, and although it rained, sleeted and snowed, there was enough visibility for some photographs.

It was cold at the trail head especially, very damp. The trail was steep enough that we generated heat and stopped several times to adjust clothing to the conditions. At the lake it was easy to forget everything but the beauty of the place.

I really liked the angle you took this from. There are so many elements that appeal to me, I can’t pick just one, from the foggy background to the forest and creek, it all just spells ‘refreshing.’ It’s kind of like taking a mini-retreat right from my computer screen. 🙂

That’s what I enjoy most in the back country; the totality of the setting, the country much the same as it was thousands of years past. It is an overwhelming feeling to hike up there and just dissolve into the natural world that we are getting farther and farther away from.

You and I stick almost entirely to nature in our photography blogs, but the comment you left on The Task at Hand about “the corrupt herd of jackals that we call a ‘government'” was a departure that caught my attention. There’s much to be said for being away from that herd and out in the wilderness instead, in a place like the one in your picture.

You are right, Steve. My sanity depends on the existence of wilderness places. I live in a state that has a long history of ravaging the substance of the natural world for the enrichment of a few. The political stratum here still supports the exploiters, even to the extent that they have a thorough hatred for anyone who they call an environmentalist. Their insistence on attacking and capitalizing on what they call our “natural resources” will eventually lead to the extinction of our species, and I cannot feel comfortable with accepting that.

There was quite a weather front that swept through here. The forecast for the night before we made this hike called for 8 inches of snow at the lake level, but only some of that happened. The front then moved on east and south and and pretty much buried South Dakota and Wyoming in snow. We do have snow at all of the high elevations now.

The precipitation levels there are quite a bit more than in the valley where I live and it supports a lot of vegetation. It is also much cooler. The soil however is shallow and rocky. It is interesting to see so much difference in the types of trees there.

It’s a rare day when everything is saturated – sky, trees, earth, rocks. You photo captures it beautifully. It’s funny – some people have said it looks chilly or cold. To me it just looks fresh, and clean. I can imagine a scent of wet wood and not-quite-rotting leaves – like laundry day in the woods.

It was fresh and clean alright: it just got pretty thoroughly washed! Give me that atmosphere any time! It will be cold there later in the winter and the snow will be deep. I plan to try to access at least some of the wilderness this winter, but I don’t know how much I will be able to do. Fifty years ago, well…